The Rebellion was in place by 2333. The leaders of this early phase of the Rebellion were unclear, but Montgomery Scott and Phigus Simenon were both influential members. However, the earlier Rebellion was largely unsuccessful, as most of the Terran civilization remained enslaved and oppressed until the Rebellion took on greater significance in 2370, with Benjamin Sisko and a crew of Terran associates escaping from the Alliance and beginning major confrontations after an encouraging and disruptive visit the Julian Bashir and Kira Nerys of the primary universe. (STA novel: Three, DS9episode: "Crossover")

In the 2340s, the Rebellion was still very vulnerable to imperial attempts to destroy it, with Guinan's crew nearly being destroyed during an encounter with the Daa'Vit. (Mirror Universe short story: "The Traitor")

Sisko was inspired by stories of the prosperous "real universe" from Kira and Bashir and began his rebellion against the Alliance on Terok Nor. However, he was killed in 2371, when the Alliance destroyed the small fightercraft he was flying. {mu|Miles O'Brien|Miles "Smiley" O'Brien}} took over as leader after the counterpart universe Benjamin Sisko helped the Rebellion keep Terok Nor, using a mirror universe copy of Sisko's ship, the Defiant. (DS9episodes: "Through the Looking Glass", "Shattered Mirror")

One of the many acts of internal sabotage of Alliance operations was to end their ability to use their cloaking devices by using new forms of sensors to disrupt the cloaking fields and the sensors detected the ships through the field. This crippled the Alliance's war machine to a massive degree.

The Rebellion experienced a massive boost in manpower when the entire Xenexian population (which numbered millions), under their new leader M'k'n'zy of Calhoun, joined the Rebellion against the Alliance. (NF - Mirror Universe novel: Cutting Ties)

Not long afterwards, 'Mac' and his ship, the Excalibur, rescued Selar, who had been undercover posing as a Romulan. She found evidence that the Romulans were building a thalaron radiation weapon for the Alliance. Mac, Selar, and Soleta arrived on Romulus in disguise as Romulan scientists, only to be discovered by Hiren. However, Alliance soldiers ambushed the four of them and discovered that the Alliance planned to destroy Romulus with the thalaron weapon. Unfortunately, although the four escaped death, the bomb went off, completely annihilating the Romulan homeworld. Despite this, Praetor Hiren decided to give command of the entire surviving Romulan fleet to Mac, so that they could join the Terran Rebellion's fight against the Alliance. (NF - Mirror Universe short story: "Homecoming")

Another major breakthrough was when the Rebellion's scientists successfully copied the designs of the counterpart universe Defiant-class warships and Romulan cloaking devices. These combined improved the Rebels' space warfare capabilities and cost the Alliance many ships and facilities.

The fighting began to spread and slaves everywhere deserted their posts and joined the Rebellion at Terok Nor or one of the Rebels bases in the Badlands. One such case was Keiko Ishikawa, who became Smiley's girlfriend and first officer. They later became the parents of Molly O'Brien.

Rebellion leaders Zek and Julian Bashir eventually stole vast amounts of resources and equipment from Alliance territory and planned to construct a fleet of cloaked Defiant-class warships at the abandoned Alliance space station Empok Nor and use them to destroy the Alliance homeworlds of Cardassia and Qo'noS. Unfortunately, these plans were undone when Empok Nor was destroyed and many rebel leaders were killed. O'Brien managed to rally his troops from the brink of despair by promising a "Revolution" against the Alliance (when in fact he had no idea how to do this). (DS9 - Mirror Universe novel: Saturn's Children)

The final victory of the Rebellion eventually came, and Earth signed an armistice with the Alliance. The newly freed Earth elected not to restore the Terran Empire, however; rather, humanity became a member of a new organization, the Galactic Commonwealth. (ST - Mirror Universe novel: Rise Like Lions)

In the 25th century, the rebellion also succeeded in throwing off Alliance rule; by 2409 the Terran Empire was once again an established power in the galaxy. (STO mission: "Crack in the Mirror")